Accretive Health got off pretty easy -- at least according to some on Wall Street.

The $2.5 million that the Chicago-based firm must pay Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson is "relatively immaterial," wrote analysts from Credit Suisse on Tuesday, July 31, as they sized up the settlement announced between the parties.

And the settlement's ban against Accretive Health doing business in Minnesota for the next two years doesn't mean much since the company already has lost its key clients here, said Bret Jones, an analyst with Oppenheimer & Co., in an interview.

"I have to believe that the case was pretty weak," Jones said. "Otherwise, I feel like (Swanson) would have held out for more."

Ben Wogsland, a spokesman for Swanson, argued that the settlement sum represents "a significant amount of money for restitution for patients." The ban is a "big deal," he added, since Accretive Health officials indicated they wanted to keep operating in Minnesota.

"We're not aware of another Fortune 500, publicly traded company that's been banned from doing business in a state like this," Wogsland said.

On Tuesday, Accretive Health shares advanced more than 35 percent on word of the settlement. Even so, the stock's closing price of $13.58 was lower than its value before Swanson released an April report that criticized Accretive and Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services.

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"Given the ferocity with which (Swanson) pursued Accretive, our view has been that Accretive would ultimately exit the state, so this outcome is not a surprise," wrote Jamie Stockton, an analyst with Wells Fargo Securities, in a note to investors Tuesday. "We believe the bigger question is what kind of reputational damage has been done to Accretive."

Swanson's report in April alleged that Accretive, which reported $826.3 million in net services revenue in fiscal 2011, imposed billing and collection methods akin to those "commonly utilized in high-pressure boiler-room-style sales atmospheres." Over the past two months, she has released a series of affidavits from patients describing how they felt pressured to make payments to Fairview or risk not being cared for.

In the April report and her January lawsuit, the attorney general also said that Accretive Health repeatedly failed to protect the privacy of health records.

Privacy experts were watching Swanson's litigation closely because it was one of the first examples of a state attorney general suing under a federal statute on health record privacy, said William McGeveran, a law professor at the University of Minnesota. Prior to 2009, only the federal government had authority to bring such cases.

The settlement announced Monday does a good job protecting Minnesotans, McGeveran said.

But it's not clear, he added, that the case will bring about structural changes in Accretive's policies and practices around the country.

Both Fairview and Maple Grove Hospital broke all ties with Accretive Health earlier this year. Wendy Jerde, a spokeswoman for Robbinsdale-based North Memorial Health Care, said Tuesday that her health system and Accretive agreed to terminate their business relationship prior to the announced settlement.

The settlement order signed Monday by U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle called for Accretive Health to pay $2,490,400 to the attorney general for distribution to patients. The company said it would voluntarily wind down its business operations in Minnesota and not do business in the state for two years.

At the end of the two-year period, Accretive Health may resume Minnesota operations at any time during the following four years, so long as it first enters into a consent decree with the attorney general.

The settlement called for Accretive Health to destroy or return to its clients all personal health and financial information on Minnesota patients.

And the company will pay for an independent consultant to verify that Accretive Health removed all such health and financial information from its physical and electronic records.